This picture released by the family shows the much-loved twins just two days after birth. The Herald Sun has beeen forced to disguise their faces because of a court order.Source: HeraldSun

A HEARTBROKEN dad’s plea to publicly mourn his baby girl has been rejected by a court that also freed the girl’s mother, who killed her.

The mother, 39, admitted repeatedly attacking her twin eight-week-old girls - killing one and leaving the other disabled for life.

She was yesterday placed on a community corrections order for a year after pleading guilty to infanticide and recklessly causing serious injury. Infanticide is the killing of a child by a mother who is mentally disturbed as a result of the birth.

The girl’s father vainly asked a Supreme Court judge to lift an order suppressing publication of the identities of the mother and the children, so he could tell his daughters’ story.

The man has therefore chosen pseudonyms - Ava and Alex - in Saturday’s Herald Sun report, which reveals how the system failed to save his two little angels.

In a letter to the court, he wrote: “I would like my deceased daughter ‘Ava’s’ life and existence to be recognised, not just formally by her birth and death certificate. Even though she lived for only eight weeks, I really want to have the opportunity to be able to talk openly about my baby girl and her sister ‘Alex’.

“During this process Ava has just disappeared,” he wrote.

“No one talks about her or acknowledges her in any way.

“It’s as if she has been totally forgotten about.

“Even when I visit her at the cemetery, it’s like her tombstone is the only public proof that she existed. I want to talk about this.

“I need baby Ava to be able to rest in peace. Please grant me and my children this wish,” he wrote.

But Justice Bernard Bongiorno said he was satisfied it was in the interests of the wellbeing of the mother and the two surviving children to continue to protect their identity.

A psychologist for the Department of Human Services told the court exposing details of the case could traumatise the elder child and jeopardise the mother’s ability to have contact with the children and be treated.

But the girls’ aunt branded the secrecy a joke.

“How can the court go against the father and children who are the true victims here and grant the mother a suppression order which simply protects her?” she said.

“It’s insulting and another example of protecting the criminal, not the victim.

“It goes against the heartfelt plea from the father and his children to be able to name their baby sister, who is now just a case number and cannot be identified.”

The Herald Sun spoke exclusively to the family of the little girls, who have called for an inquest, saying the system protected the mother but failed the tiny twins.

Their grievances include:

TWO maternal health nurses who saw the twins’ multiple bruises and scratches believed the mother that the marks were accidental and did not make a report to authorities.

OTHER healthcare workers diagnosed the crying twins, in terrible pain from broken bones inflicted almost from the day they were brought home from hospital, with colic.

THE mother remained on paid leave from her taxpayer-funded job for almost two years until this month.

AUTHORITIES are assisting the mother with her attempts to gain access to her children.

SUPPRESSION orders have robbed the girls of their identities and dehumanised them.

The family say the mother has made no financial contribution to the children’s care and last year asked that they move out of the house so she could rent it out.

The girls’ aunt and uncle said systemic failures had let the little girls down.

The Supreme Court heard the mother told police post-natal depression may have caused her to “flip”, and she did not remember when or how often she hurt her babies.

Ava was found by her father distressed, pale and limp in the early hours of April 26, 2012.

Royal Children’s Hospital staff found a serious skull fracture had caused bleeding around her brain, and the baby girl died on the operating table.

Medical staff found both girls had multiple historic and recent fractures to their skulls, ribs and other bones and bruising over their bodies.

The family praised the Royal Children’s Hospital surgeons and staff, the Office of Public Prosecutions and the homicide squad.

But they believe the health and judicial system is skewed and the girls, who were the victims, had been overlooked.

Their aunt said the family was extremely distressed to think the girls had been screaming in pain from injuries rather than the colic that was “nonchalantly” diagnosed.

The girls last visited the maternal and child health clinic just a day before the death.

The local council’s social development director confirmed the nurses had mandatory obligations to report child abuse but their conduct had been reviewed and considered not to warrant further action.

The girls’ uncle said his brother, who’d previously worked two jobs, was now destitute and on benefits, raising two children as a single dad.

The surviving twin will need lifelong care for her cerebral palsy and will most likely lose sight in one eye.

A NOTE ABOUT RELEVANT ADVERTISING: We collect information about the content (including ads) you use across this site and use it to make both advertising and content more relevant to you on our network and other sites.